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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2004)
Committee questions conduct of Tom DeLay It is the second time the House majority leader's political actions have been criticized this week BY LARRY MARGASAK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee Wednesday criticized House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for conduct that appeared to link political donations to legislation and for im properly contacting U.S. aviation au thorities for political purposes, House sources said Wednesday. The committee’s findings were an extraordinary second rebuke of the Texas Republican’s ethical conduct in just six days. The committee of five Democrats and five Republicans deferred to Texas authorities allegations that DeLay vio lated state campaign finance rules. The committee’s findings — a re port admonishing his conduct — m A JOBS Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. m SHOW US YOUR SCHOOL ID FOR YOUR ORDER! S. Eugene & UO 30 W 29th Ave 484-PAPA 3 (7272) N. Eugene & Bethel Danebo/Santa Clara 54B Division 461-PAPA (7272) Springfield/Univ. Commons/Chase & Ducks Village 1402 Mohawk 746-PAPA Not valid with other coupons or specials. Delivery charges may apply. (7272) i v nonetheless spared him a lengthy in vestigation by the ethics panel. By concluding the case with no more than a report on DeLay’s conduct, the investigation is unlikely to affect his ability to push the Republican agen da through the House if the GOP re tains its majority. Last Thursday the same committee, in an investigative report, admonished DeLay for offering to support the House candidacy of a Michigan law maker’s son, in return for the lawmak er’s vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The committee acted on a three part complaint from Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas. The allegations accused DeLay of soliciting political contri butions from Westar Energy, a Kansas company, in return for leg islative favors; violating Texas laws prohibiting corporate political dona tions; and improperly contacting aviation authorities to track down a plane carrying Texas Democratic leg islators who were trying to defeat a DeLay-engineered congressional re districting plan. Westar executives made a $25,000 donation to an organization affiliated with DeLay just before attending a two-day get-together at a Virginia resort with the House GOP leader. The committee said there was a “significant gap” between the Westar allegations — accusing DeLay of ac tually soliciting contributions in re turn for legislative favors — and the panel’s findings. “The information we obtained indi cates that neither Representative De Lay nor anyone acting on his behalf improperly solicited contributions from Westar, and Representative De Lay took no action with regard to Wes tar that would constitute an impermis sible special favor,” the report said. Japan relatively unscathed after 5.8-magnitude earthquake There were no reports of major damage in Tokyo, but four people were injured BY KENJI HALL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO — An earthquake struck eastern Japan late Wednesday, shaking buildings in Tokyo and injuring four people. There were no reports of ma jor damage. The 5.8-magnitude quake hit at 11:40 p.m. and was centered some 40 miles beneath the earth's surface in Ibaraki state, northeast of the capital, the Meteorological Agency said. A magnitude-5 earthquake can cause damage to homes if it occurs in a residential area. But the depth of the temblor dampened much of its poten tially destructive power. The temblor, which lasted more than 30 seconds, was most strongly felt in Tsukuba city, in Ibaraki state, and Miyashiro town, in Saitama state, the agency said. Office buildings and homes in Tokyo swayed for about 10 seconds. It also shook cities in Tochigi, Chiba, Gunma, Kanagawa, Shizuoka and Nagano prefectures. The National Police Agency said four people suffered minor injuries. Tsukuba city police spokesman Nobuo Abe said there were no reports of quake-related damage. He said the temblor wasn't strong enough to dis lodge items from shelves. Tokyo Electric Power Co. official Katsuya Uchino said power plants and electricity services across the region were unaffected. However, the quake triggered an au tomatic safety device on trains, tem porarily bringing railway transport in Tokyo and other areas to a halt, ac cording to Japanese media. Service was resumed minutes later, the reports said. There was no danger of tsunami — or huge waves triggered by seismic ac tivity — the agency said. Japan, which rests atop several tec tonic plates, is among the rpost earth quake-prone countries in the world. Your place for i\iFWQreader poll classifieds ae nd more www.dallyemerald.com Buy your textbooks on eBay and save up to 3S03& ©CD* the list price. PREVENT OVERSPENDING College for less. More tor you. Play online for a chance to WIN!** $2,500 eBay Shopping Spree! ^ ~k SoBe cooler and drinks for a year! -fa Mobile phone and $50 Verizon Wireless gift card! A Thousands of other prizes! 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